Living Our Dream

Anacortes, WA

Anacortes, WA, is a small town located on Fidalgo Island about 75 miles north of Seattle and about 60 miles north of Lake Pleasant RV Resort where we were staying. Anacortes is east of the San Juan Islands and is therefore a popular boating destination.

Anacortes is also the home of Seabear Smokehouse, which smokes wild Alsakan salmon and other fish. When we ran across their web site, we read you can tour their facilities and watch them fillet and prepare fish for smoking. We were intrigued, so we went for a drive.

The Seabear web site says the best time to watch filleting was between 9:15 and 10:45 in the morning, so we timed our trip to arrive around 10:00. The photo below shows the entrance to Seabear Smokehouse.

 

Seabear receives frozen Alaska salmon almost every morning. After the fish is thawed, it is filleted. Unfortunately, the pickup of the fish from the airport was late the day we went. Although we didn't get to see them fillet the salmon, we did get to watch a video showing the filleting, and we got to see some of the other operations.

After they fillet the fish, it goes into the smoker. After smoking, the fish is cut, weighed, and sealed into foil pouches. The workers on the left were cutting and weighing smoked fish and putting it into pouches.

 

The pouches were being sealed out of view behind the bins on the right in the above photo, then they were placed on racks. Smoking is only to add flavor, not to cook the fish. The fish is cooked for a couple of hours in the steam-heated retort. The next photo shows the workers sliding racks of salmon into the retort.

   

The next photo shows the retort itself.

After cooking, the pouches are wiped and inspected.

 

The fish in pouches is just like canned fish. As long as the pouch is unopened, the fish will last about 7 years without refrigeration.

Seabear ships retail product direct to consumers and it also sells wholesale. You can buy gift boxes of several varieties of salmon or just one pouch like Margery is holding. We bought a pouch of smoked sockeye salmon. We haven't tried it yet, but it sockeye is their signature variety.

 

Just as we were getting ready to leave, the day's fish finally arrived. Since they still had to thaw it before cutting it up, we decided not to wait and drove around town instead.

The waterfront at Anacortes is lined with boat yards filled with yachts and sailboats. There are numerous docks and boats are also hauled out of the water for storage like the one being carried up the road in the photo below.

 

The storage areas had plenty of boats for sale like the one in the next photo.

 

Paul liked the sailboat in the next photo that was designed to look like a Chinese junk.

 

At the north end of town, we passed Dakota Creek Industries shipyard. There was an almost-completed ship standing in the yard towering over the street.

 

The ship is the Ross Candies, which is a 309-foot long inspection, maintenance, and repair vessel that will be used to service off-shore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The round grids near the bottom of the bow are bow thrusters to increase the maneuverability of the ship. The platform is a helicopter landing pad.

Along side the Ross Candies, they were working on another, similar ship. It was interesting to be able to see the decks and bulkheads inside the hull.

 

From the shipyard, we headed back to the motor home. The next day, we had a free day to make a last-minute grocery run, to catch up on laundry, and to relax. We would be traveling for a couple of days, so that was a welcome break.

Seattle, WA Part IV: Pike Place Market

Seattle's Pike Place Market is located at the edge of the downtown area along the waterfront. The market is the oldest, continuously-operating farmers' market in the United States. In addition to fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish, the market also has crafts and other merchandise.

Our online research turned up Savor Seattle that has a number of food tours around the city including two different tours of Pike Place Market. We chose the tour that is recommended for first-time visitors to the market that includes a brief history of the market, a walking tour of the market, behind the scenes info, and samples at quite a few of the shops.

Our plan of saving our city sightseeing for the weekend worked out OK on Saturday, even with everything that was going on in town; but it worked out even better on Sunday because there was only a baseball game going on downtown and we were much farther from the stadium. We found a conveniently-located parking lot with a weekend parking rate of only $5 whereas the same lot for the same amount of time would have been $18 during the week.

The tour started at a Starbuck's Coffee Shop right across the street from the market entrance. The tour guide had a microphone with a transmitter and we were all given earpieces so we could hear everything he was saying. We started off our tour with a sample of Starbuck's iced coffee, then headed across the street to the market. The photo below shows the main entrance to the market. That's our tour guide on the right with the pink umbrella. He used that when we got into some of the more open areas so we could find him more easily. As the morning went on, the umbrella really helped because it started to get pretty crowded.

Back in Seattle's early days, farmers sold their produce on consignment through middlemen in an area called Produce Row. Even though the middlemen sold the produce to consumers at inflated prices, many times the farmers didn't even receive enough money to break even. Both the public and the farmers grew increasingly dissatisfied with this arrangement.

In 1907, a city councilman proposed a public market that would connect customers directly with the producers. Pike Place Market was born when the city designated the area along Pike Place overlooking the bay as the site of the market.

  Today, there are 200 year-round commercial businesses, 190 craftspeople and 200 farmers who rent table space by the day, and 240 street performers and musicians who perform (not all at the same time) at the market for tips. Except for a few vendors who are "grandfathered," all farmers and craftspeople are only permitted to sell what they grow or make themselves. The commercial businesses occupy the same stalls, called high stalls, every day. The day stalls and spots for entertainers are assigned according to a set of rules that are based on seniority. There are even some stores on the lower levels of the market. The market is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day, although some of the shops may set their own hours.

One of the market's most famous attractions is the Pike Place Fish Market with its flying fish. Employees got tired of walking back and forth between the main counter and the ice tables of fish out front of the counter. They decided they could save a lot of time and steps if one of them could stay at the table to help customers pick out their fish, then throw it to another employee behind the counter for filleting and wrapping. The photo below shows the counter at the Pike Place Fish Market where some of the smaller items like crab, shrimp and oysters are displayed.

 

The next photo shows the table with the larger fish. Notice the octopus. We don't think they would try to throw that, but...

...there goes a salmon.

At Pike Place Fish Market, we had samples of delicious, alderwood-smoked salmon and salmon belly strips (also known as salmon jerky).

The next photo shows our tour group at MarketSpice, which is a shop that sells spices and teas. We had a sample of spiced tea with cinnamon oil, cloves, and orange.

Of course, vegetables are what the market is all about. At Frank's Quality Produce, we sampled apricots and bing cherries. Washington State is known for bing cherries.

Paul was attracted to the very colorful ristras as we passed by the shop in the next photo.

At another shop called "Piroshky, Piroshky," we had samples of piroshky, which are Russian meat pastries. In the photo below, Margery was watching as they made up a batch.

 

And in the next photo our tour guide is passing out samples of meat and cheese and smoked salmon piroshky.

We passed a number of street entertainers. There are musical notes painted in the pavement at numerous locations around the market. Each entertainer is assigned a spot where they stay for an hour. They then must move to another spot, which helps insure everyone gets a good chance to spend at least part of their time at the higher traffic areas. The fellow in the photo below is going to have to push that piano around every hour. You can see the red musical note on the sidewalk on the right marking his spot.

We saw the three-piece band with the washtub bass in the next photo at what was obviously obviously a high-traffic area. They are on the sidewalk in front of the first Starbuck's, which is a very popular stop for tourists. Actually, the first Starbuck's was about two blocks down the street, but the building where they were located was torn down. They moved to this location and are using the same business license, so technically it's the same business, although it's not at the same location.

The fellow in the next photo was making balloon animals.

 

Beecher's Handmade Cheese makes cheese on site. You can watch the process through the window.

At Beecher's, we had samples of their award-winning Flagship cheese that was similar to a Gruyere and a to-die-for macaroni and cheese. On our tour, we also had samples of mini-doughnuts, clam chowder and seafood bisque, crab cakes, and chocolates. The food was great, as was the whole tour. The two-hour tour ended when we reached the far end of the market.

 

After the tour was over, we had time to meander back through the market on our own. We stopped for a tourist photo.

We saw dozens of people carrying beautiful flowers while we were on our tour, so we stopped at one of several flower stalls. The flowers were very reasonably priced. Most of the bunches of flowers in the photo below were only $10.

We bought a small bunch of sunflowers for $5, headed back to the car, and drove back to the motor home. We still have more places to visit before we leave Seattle, so stay tuned.

Seattle, WA Part I: Microsoft, Chittenden Locks, and Voula's

Redmond, WA, is a suburb of Seattle located about 15 miles from where we were staying in Bothell. Redmond is the location of the headquarters for Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Corporation is a major employer in Seattle with about 30,000 employees in the area.  Microsoft is best known for its Windows operating system and for the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Microsoft has a visitor center in Redmond, so we drove over for a look.

The Altair 8800 microcomputer was introduced in 1975 as a kit sold through electronics hobby magazines. Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who was working for Honeywell, saw an opportunity to start their own company and contacted the creators of the Altair offering to develop a programming language for the 8800. They developed a programing language called Altair BASIC for the Altair 8800 and Microsoft was born. The photo below is an Altair 8800 computer.

 

Microsoft was originally founded in Albuquerque, MN, where the Altair computer was manufactured. They moved to Washington in 1979.

Following the development of Altair BASIC, Microsoft developed other computer programing languages, but their first big success came with DOS (Disc Operating System) for the IBM personal computer in 1981.

The visitor center has a few historical displays like the Altair 8800 shown above, and the typewriter in the next photo behind Margery. She remembers using typewriters like that.

Most of the displays at the visitor center showcase new technology. There were a lot of hands-on displays, and we had a lot of fun playing with their toys. The photo below shows Paul playing with a Zune MP3 player. Introduced in 2006, the Zune is Microsoft's answer to Apple's iPod.

They also had a bunch of PCs and laptops set up with the latest software including beta versions of Windows 7, scheduled to replace Windows Vista later this year. We've been thinking about a new laptop, but we have been holding off because we have heard so many people dislike Windows Vista.

One of the best toys was a touch sensitive horizontal screen. The default display looks like water in a pond that sends out ripples and waves when you touch it.

 

When you tap little icons in the corners, the display changes, and you can then use the device to display and sort photos and to play games.

After the Microsoft visitor center, we drove a few miles west to the northern part of Seattle to see the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks on the Lake Washington Ship Chanel. The locks, which were officially opened in 1917, separate the higher-level, fresh water Lake Washington from the salt water in Puget Sound. The locks also enable both pleasure boats and commercial ships to pass between the two bodies of water

Chittenden Locks were named for Hiram M. Chittenden, who was the Seattle District engineer for the Army Corps of engineers who was largely responsible for the design of the locks. Chittenden retired due to poor health before the construction of the locks began.

There are walkways where visitors can cross directly over the gates and view the ships passing through the locks.

Chittenden Locks consist of two sets of locks - a smaller set for smaller boats and times of lighter traffic and a large set of locks. The photo above shows the large locks. The locks accommodate anything from kayaks to a 760-foot, ocean-going ship.

There is a fish ladder at the locks that enables salmon to make the passage from Puget Sound to spawning areas farther upstream. This fish ladder is one of only a few in the world located where salt water meets fresh. Most fish ladders are located in fresh water. The photo beloe shows some of the 21 steps in the fish ladder.

 

The fish ladder also has an underwater viewing area. Steelhead, sockeye, chinook, and coho salmon all pass through this area. Different varieties of salmon migrate at different times of the year, and with four varieties in this area, there is salmon migration almost all year round. Sockeye were finishing their migration when we were there and chinook were just starting. The numbers at any particular time depend on the tides, and there weren't many passing through during our visit. There is a salmon barely visible in the photo below.

 

There is also a botanical gardens on the grounds of the locks. The north bank was just gravel until the Corps of Engineers hired gardener Carl English in 1931 to transform the grounds. English collected trees, shrubs, and flowers from around the world. The photo below shows just a few of the flowers in the garden.

 

After we visited the locks, it was mid afternoon and we headed to Voula's Offshore Cafe for a late lunch. Voula's is located along the ship canal about 15 minutes east of the locks and is another one of those restaurants we saw recently on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Voula's is only open from 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM and serves breakfast and lunch with many Greek dishes. We both had Greek hobos, which are hash browns, sweet onions, mushrooms, and scrambled egg topped with melted feta cheese. It covers a dinner-size plate, and also includes your choice of toast or English muffin. Yum! We had enough left over to take back with us for breakfast the next morning.

There is still more to see in the Seattle area, so look for our next post.

Port Angeles to Chimacum to Bothell, WA

When we left Salt Creek Recreation Area near Port Angeles, we were planning a short drive of only about 1½ hours to the Escapees Evergreen Coho Park in Chimacum, WA. Escapees parks do not accept reservations and are first come, first served. The Escapees campgrounds all have a dry camp area where you can stay until a full-hookup site opens up; but since we had just spent a week without sewer hookup, we desperately needed to do laundry. Therefore, we really wanted a full hookup site.

We called the Escapees park just before we pulled out, and it looked like we might not get into a full-hookup site because they only knew about one site that was going to open up and someone else had called earlier and was already on their way to claim that site. We called another campground a little farther down the road who said they had one open site; but when we got there, our motor home barely fit into the site, and there was no way we were going to get satellite. We called several other campgrounds, and no one had a site open even though it was only 11:00 AM on a Monday no less.

As much as we dislike being tied down by reservations, we hate being left with no place to stay even more. That's the reason we usually make reservations anytime we are in tourist areas during the summer, in a snowbird area in winter, or when we are planning to stay in a state park or Corps of Engineers campground on a weekend. We made an exception this time to give our schedule a little flexibility, and because we had the Escapees dry camp area as a backup.

So we went to Plan B and backtracked to the Escapees park figuring we would have to take a dry-camp site and use the campground laundry, but much to our surprise, someone left unexpectedly. We were gratified to get a full-hookup site after all.  :-)

Escapees Evergreen Coho Park is a co-op that has has a small camping area for transients. The camping area has full hookups (30 amp electric) plus cable. The roads are paved and the sites are all gravel. The gravel is fresh and clean, and there is plenty of it. The campground is nice and quiet with no road noise and no trains. The photo below shows our site at Escapees Evergreen Coho Park.



We spent two days at the Escapees park chilling out and catching up on laundry. We didn't have any sightseeing plans, but we did drive about 10 minutes to the north to Port Townsend. Port Townsend is a quaint, Victorian town that is somewhat of an artist community. Port Townsend is located where the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound meet.

The Romanesque building in the next photo was built in 1893 as the U. S. Customs House and Post Office. It is still in daily use today as a Post Office with federal offices on the upper floors.



The Post Office and a number of Victorian houses, like the bed and breakfast in the next photo, are located on a hill overlooking the Port Townsend waterfront.



Below us at the waterfront, the ferry from Whidbey Island, WA, was approaching.



The ferry didn't look that big, and we were surprised at how many vehicles, including an 18-wheeler, got off when it docked. All the vehicles in the photo above that were waiting, except for two of the smaller RVs and about half a dozen cars, fit onto the ferry for the return trip to Whidbey. Those that didn't fit had an hour and a half wait for the ferry to return.

From the waterfront, we drove a little way north of town to see the Point Wilson Lighthouse. The light was originally located on top of the keepers house to the left and was first lit in 1879. The light was moved when the tower was completed in 1913.



After our excursion to Port Townsend, Margery had an appointment in Chimacum for a haircut after which we went to the Chimacum Cafe for an early dinner. The cafe was recommended by some of the Escapees. It isn't fancy, but the food is good, and there's plenty of it. Dinners run from about $10 to $15 and include soup, a large salad, potato, vegetable, roll and butter, and ice cream. Paul had chicken-fried steak (special of the day at $8.95) and Margery had fried clam strips. Both meals were great, and we were stuffed when we left. The next photo shows Paul about to dig into his salad. It was smothered in bleu cheese dressing which tasted home made.



From Chimacum, we had about a three-hour drive down around the southern end of Puget Sound to Bothell, WA, which is a northern suburb of Seattle on the eastern side of Puget Sound. In Bothell, we stayed at Lake Pleasant RV Park. Lake Pleasant RV has 186 full-hookup RV sites situated around a lake. The lake is located down in a hollow, which helps eliminate traffic noise from the busy road that passes by the campground. Except for the Canada geese that squawk from time to time, the campground is pretty quiet.

Lake Pleasant RV has 50 amp electric, Wi-Fi, and cable. The roads and pads are paved. The sites are a little narrow, but there are shrubs between the sites for added privacy. The landscaping is attractive and well-groomed. The photo below shows our site at Lake Pleasant RV.

 

We will be using Lake Pleasant RV as a home base to visit the Seattle area where there is a lot to see and do. We'll be covering our adventures in the area in the next several posts.